In Old Chicago

One of the most interesting things to study in film history are the cycles popular opinion goes in. Usually one big film can start a trend, and then a genre is reborn, or in some cases, a mini-genre is born altogether. In 2000, "Gladiator" swept the Oscars and over the next five years there have been, to varying degrees, a multitude of "swords-and-sandals" epics. The 1930's were no different. When "San Francisco", a dynamic combination of an all star cast and incredible special effects, was released in 1936, the craze for disaster movies was on. Much like studios do today, films were rushed into production by other studios to capitalize on the new trend, and the first successful result was 1937's "In Old Chicago". Much like "San Francisco", "In Old Chicago" assembled a strong cast (Fox's big star trio of Tyrone Power, Alice Faye and Don Ameche, as well as solid supporting players Brian Donlevy, Alice Brady and the incomparable Andy Devine) and combined that with a spectacular recreation of a historical event, in the former's case the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and in this case, the 1871 Chicago fire. Using one of Hollywood's five or six timeless narrative blueprints, "In Old Chicago" features fictional characters involved in the film's narrative until history intervenes. It has been used countless times throughout cinema history, from "Gone With the Wind" through to "Titanic". It gives the story greater drama and grounds the fictional circumstances in something audiences can relate to. "In Old Chicago" features Dion and Jack O'Leary, two brothers who have each made a name for themself, but in vastly different ways, and who each disapprove of the other. Before the two can settle their differences the "Chicago" way, their mother's cow kicks over a lantern and one of the most impressive set pieces ever put to film follows (the nearly 70 year old fire effects and ravaged sets, as well as one particular explosion, still hold up incredibly well today). "In Old Chicago" is a fine example of a classic story, interwoven with some history, and told with the ingredients money could buy, thus it should come as no surprise that the film is incredibly entertaining.

As the film begins, the O'Leary clan is just arriving in Chicago. Their father is killed in a freak accident, leaving their mother to raise the three O'Leary boys on her own. Each son swears to make something of themself and honor the family name. Cut to 20 years later and each has, in a way. The youngest helps their mother around her house, which she turned (somehow) into Chicago's most successful laundry. Jack, the straight arrow, is a muckracking lawyer out to scourge Chicago of its rampant vice, and his main target is Gil Warren, a menacing nightclub owner and racketeer (played by menacing Hollywood character actor Brian Donlevy) who has just taken on a new protege, Jack's brother Dion. Dion, played with a devil-may-care attitude by matinee idol Tyrone Power, is the town playboy, who loves money almost as much as he loves opportunity. Upon learning that the intersection he was planning on putting up his own nightclub had already been purchased by Belle Fawcett, a volutuous singer, instead of muscling in on her, Dion used his good looks and rakish charm, and seduced her into letting him be her partner. Gil likes Dion, but is wary of the young man's ambition, as well as his crusading brother. After butting heads over money and Belle, Dion decides to join forces with his brother Jack, and the two plan to shut down Gil's operations, using the reform platform to catapult Jack into City Hall and the mayor's office. What he doesn't count on is Dion's knack for trouble. Dion sees this as his opportunity to make a play for the entire Patch, seeing as how his brother, the most honest man in Chicago, has his back, he does not fear retribution. Jack draws the line though and insists Dion give up his vice rackets and become an honest businessman. While all of this is going on, Ma O'Leary's cow (which is established as having a nasty kick) knocks over a lantern, and the cheap wooden houses of the Patch are in flames almost instantly. Gil Warren plans to kill both Dion and Jack in the ensuing chaos, as well as preventing Jack and the firemen from saving the Patch, preferring to let it all burn down and impose his grip on the "new" Chicago that is sure to built over its ashes.

The fire scenes are incredible, specifically one shot of a firing wall being established to block the fire's path by dynamiting an entire city block. In a perfect example of the now abandoned rear projection matting process, poor Andy Devine, as Dion's loyal friend/bodyguard Pickle Bixby, is trapped in the wake of the explosion and for those tired of characters depicted against green screen looking cartoonish, check out how realistic it looks when an entire row of buildings explodes right in front of Pickle. Gil Warren and his mob succeed in killing Jack, who dies valiantly saving the life of Dion, but Dion is able to escape, and grabs his mother and Belle before the fire consumes them. Dion vows revenge for his brother's death, and with his mother and Belle by his side, he plans to help rebuild Chicago in his brother's image, working to rid the city of gangsters like Gil Warren. The film today comes across as fairly hoaky (Jack is extremely idealistic and Dion, while played by the handsome Tyrone Power, is portrayed as a god among men) and is almost devoid of subtlety (does the infamous cow that started the fire really have to belong to the main character's family?) but all of that is secondary to the film's entertaining story, which even though a bit broadly played, is still acted very well by Power, Ameche and Faye. 20th Century Fox had the rights to all three stars and used them together numerous times, Power and Faye especially (since Ameche was one of the earliest critics of the studio system's control of actors he was blacklisted until the system fell almost 40 years later) and their easy going chemistry shows. The supporting cast also scores here, with Donlevy one of the cinema's greatest "evil" villains, Alice Brady's Oscar winning turn as the boy's noble mother, and Andy Devine hamming it up. Still, nothing can top the fire effects, and though Hollywood would crank out several more disaster epics, ("The Hurricane" and "The Rains Came" in the next few years), "San Francisco" and "In Old Chicago" are the best.